Water and wastewater utility

52:08All right. So now we're gonna look at our water and wastewater utility. And so um really the message here when we look at our water utility is the team does a great job of balancing what's paying for what. And so the underlying message here is that we are ensuring growth is paying for growth. And what I mean when I say that is that the revenue associated with volume increase is what's funding the initiatives that you see here related to growing the team's capacity, right? And so some um easy ones

52:38to pull off the slide would be your meter reader threes, right? That's a direct correlation to increased capacity, your wastewater plant operators. And then something really important to point out is when you're looking at the utilities engineering and contract management, a big chunk of that investment is as that capital program continues to grow, Adolpho needs a bigger team to be able to manage and execute those capital projects. And so that's what you're seeing there. And then are there any other questions before we move

53:08on? Yes,

53:11so on utilities customer service or information services there's four head count. So this four hundred and one thousand is for four positions?

53:23It's gonna include startup costs as well, so maybe some one time pieces of equipment, so think computers for those in house, vehicles for those who are out and about.

53:36Uh I was just curious, the You know what I mean you have four heads that's over a hundred thousand a Ps. So I was curious a little you know what what all is is in that four hundred and one thousand dollar ask 'cause you look at more technical jobs at the first slide under public infrastructure, a project manager and a senior program manager, you're sitting at you know Yeah.

54:00I could bring Sandra Anderson. So I was just I was just

54:02curious what all what all comes comes with it. We don't have to go through that now,

54:06but Okay. I mean we can bring it, we can send it to the board, you know, post post meeting, but Sandra is here if she wants to talk about it.

54:14You want to drop all the stock? Yeah.

54:16Sure.

54:19Hell

54:19yeah,

54:20so

54:21Yeah. Eric? I'm sorry sir. I think I heard Commissioner Starkey say she has a question. Okay.

54:29Well let's go with the discussion first.

54:31Good morning. Sandry Anderson, Director for Customer Information and Services for Utilities. One of the major uh big cost meter vehicles we have do you have to have vehicles for them? And then for our customer service reps and our meat readers, the proprietary software that we have for our customer information services it's sort of our cash measure and all the behind the scenes stuff is too is very expensive to the license. So you have to have multiple license to Read the account, access the account, update it, push work

55:01or work orders out to the field, then to be able to pull that back information, make sure it's real time, update it. It does add up pretty quickly by the time you put all the software and licenses on it. But the vehicle's a big chunk of it as well.

55:14Okay. So uh the four hundred and one thousand dollar increase that's more for vehicle technology software.

55:22That's a big chunk of it, yes.

55:26All right, thank you.

55:27Thank you.

55:28Commissioner, I believe uh Commissioner Starkey has something to say. Her mic is currently muted, but if she unmutes Commissioner Starkey?

55:43Commissioner Starkey, we can't

55:44quite hear

55:45you.

55:45I think I know what she's trying to say. She was asking if if we could use old sheriff deputy cars, I guess, as as replacements. I think the quick answer to that is I know the sheriff, in order to keep his fleet costs manageable, I know he he buys certain cars and he makes certain modifications to maximize the resale value because he uses penny for Pasco funds. for those vehicles. You know, re reusing or repurposing vehicles is something that we can we can look at. I know specifically though, Commissioner, for the sheriff,

56:15uh that that he he he buys and and treats his vehicles with the end in mind in terms of resale to maximize uh the penny funds that he gets to use those vehicles. But but I understand where you're coming from. Um I can certainly talk to staff and see about you know what We use with reused vehicles. I will say that there, you know, you do get concerns over reliability issues. One of the things that our fleet fund, which is an internal services fund, we do charge departments. Essentially, when you buy a vehicle, we also add a

56:45little extra in there to handle the replacement because we have found that there is a sweet spot. After about seven or eight years, we can retire those vehicles and get new ones in with newer technology. technology and it and it lessens our overall operational maintenance costs. I think you've seen that. We've presented that to the board in the past that our fleet, our shop costs are even well below what you see in the private sector for fleets. And that's why they're one of the top top fleets and we're we're recognized with that in in North America. Eric, did I miss anything?

57:15Okay, and then um so Commissioner Weightman just to circle back for context for the second year costs related to the positions that Sandra came up and discussed for the meter readers, you're looking at roughly 128,000 recurring and then roughly the same for the customer service. So those are your ongoing salary related costs. So then you can see that Delta is gonna be the first time startup costs that she was discussing. Just add some clarity.

57:44Do we have to pay those costs? Say that. Person doing that job, meter eater three. It's promoted. Do we have to buy that technology in specifically for that New person to backfill that position. I asked that because I It seemed pretty s the licensing seemed rather specific.

58:14The li actually we hire we can hire in the Meteor Eaters as a one, two, and three based on their experience. So the same person that license is gonna be with them, regardless if they get promoted from one, two, or three, we don't we don't repay that initial cost. We do have some additional ongoing annual costs that's tied into it, both for the maintenance of the software as well as the access to the software.

58:37So a license is a license, regardless. It doesn't necessarily an individual.

58:42Doesn't matter Mike goes does something else Eric. I go to something Eric Eric gets my license, correct?

58:46Yeah it'll it'll follow the position.

58:48Okay. All right, thank you.

59:00I swear I'm clicking. Did I put it to sleep again?

59:08Ooh, all right. Thank you, Eric.